Hej!
As promised, a picture update! But first, I have three things I would like to mention
1) Making Cookies
I decided this afternoon, I as do often at home, that I would much rather make cookies than do my homework; I had done my best to prepare myself for just such an occasion the last time I went to the grocery store. But I discovered today that not even making cookies, something I could do in my sleep at home, had escaped the study abroad transformations. Measuring cups in metric, oven temperatures labeled in Celsius, and of course ingredients labeled in Swedish all contributed to the confusion.
I have since learned that 1 cup = 250g, ¾ cup = about 2.5 dL, and I completely guessed on the oven temp. (As my Granny knows, I never measure teaspoons anyway.) I have also learned I mistook regular baking flour for whole wheat flour, dark brown sugar for light, and my chocolate chips are a chopped up bar of baking chocolate. My cookies are baking in a glass casserole dish because I don’t have cookie sheets.
But you know what? They still taste like chocolate chip cookies.
2) Searching for the Sun
As you already know, there is significantly less daylight in Uppsala at the moment than there is in Colorado. It’s also been mostly cloudy the first two weeks of my stay here, further limiting my sunshine. I hadn’t noticed that I missed the sun until today, when it was a beautiful bluebird day and I was sitting in lecture from eight to two. Needless to say my attention span was slightly less today than on previous days of class.
Riding my bike back from class was an absolute delight; I deliberately dragged the trip out to stay out in the sunshine longer. Everything looks a little different in daylight. The cathedral looked completely different; not as stark. I noticed as I waited at a stoplight that the public library was slightly less enthralling than normal, and across the street was The English Bookshop, which I’ve had recommended to me but completely forgot about.
This is when it hit me. I was noticing things again, the same way I had the first weekend of wandering around town. Though I make a point of looking up at the cathedral as I blast past it on my bike, I was forgetting to look at everything else. All it took was the sunlight to remind me, luckily, and now I can try to remember to see what’s in front of me again.
3) Partying
This weekend I was invited out to a little get together with several of the students from my class, just to hang out and drink German wine and vodka. One of the Germans in particular was enthusiastic for me to hang out with them because I’ve been rather quiet and studious in class. I thought it was a lot of fun; it was three Germans, three Swedes, a Canadian, and me. I spent most of my time listening to everyone’s stories; the Swedes and the Canadian were in a dissection-based lab last semester and were well down memory lane on that topic when I arrived. Later the conversation ranged from questions like “Is South Park a real place?” to “Why are Americans so friendly to people they’ve just met?” (This is rather uncommon in Germany and Europe, and our Canadian friend was undecided. Usually Germans and Swedes are rather formal with the people they’ve just met.) We hung around until about midnight before we parted ways, most of us to get ourselves home and go to bed.
It wasn’t until the next morning I found the text the German student had sent me just after everyone had left: “I really have some trouble to cope with you. Normally one gets drunk and then it is a lot easier but it’s hard for me to interact with you now.” I was a little frustrated with this. I had been rather proud of myself for doing something social (and even trying the vodka) and yet I was still apparently the oddball out because I didn’t drink enough.
Now, don’t expect my next post to be about the raging party I went to; I don’t plan on changing myself and my comfort levels that drastically. But it does leave me wondering about alcohol, college students, and social activity. Is it really that similar the world over?
Now, that is quite enough of me blabbing. Picture time!
First up, my beautiful bike! Between the bright red frame and the teal seat cover, I never lose this thing. It's served me very well so far, trekking through snow and ice and a lot of other bikers to the Biomedical center and back every day.
For those of you who were interested, above are pictures of a light switch (top) and a magic button (bottom). This magic button is special enough to have a sticker next to it that tells me what to do in both English and Swedish; most don't. Note the little blue key though; that's the ID for a magic button. And now when you go to Sweden you'll be able to open the doors too!
The following pictures are taken of the cathedral in the middle of town at 7:45 in the morning (about forty minutes before the sun came up). As I mentioned before, the cathedral looks like a painting instead of a real building.
Henri tells me the cathedrals in Paris are even more incredible, but I will continue to savor this one for as long as I live in Uppsala.
The sun today inspired me to think about doing a lot of things (none of them related to homework) so I'm planning on taking more pictures of the town and the places I'm loving more and more to show you. Maybe I'll even have them by the next post! Until then,
Hej då!
As promised, a picture update! But first, I have three things I would like to mention
1) Making Cookies
I decided this afternoon, I as do often at home, that I would much rather make cookies than do my homework; I had done my best to prepare myself for just such an occasion the last time I went to the grocery store. But I discovered today that not even making cookies, something I could do in my sleep at home, had escaped the study abroad transformations. Measuring cups in metric, oven temperatures labeled in Celsius, and of course ingredients labeled in Swedish all contributed to the confusion.
I have since learned that 1 cup = 250g, ¾ cup = about 2.5 dL, and I completely guessed on the oven temp. (As my Granny knows, I never measure teaspoons anyway.) I have also learned I mistook regular baking flour for whole wheat flour, dark brown sugar for light, and my chocolate chips are a chopped up bar of baking chocolate. My cookies are baking in a glass casserole dish because I don’t have cookie sheets.
But you know what? They still taste like chocolate chip cookies.
2) Searching for the Sun
As you already know, there is significantly less daylight in Uppsala at the moment than there is in Colorado. It’s also been mostly cloudy the first two weeks of my stay here, further limiting my sunshine. I hadn’t noticed that I missed the sun until today, when it was a beautiful bluebird day and I was sitting in lecture from eight to two. Needless to say my attention span was slightly less today than on previous days of class.
Riding my bike back from class was an absolute delight; I deliberately dragged the trip out to stay out in the sunshine longer. Everything looks a little different in daylight. The cathedral looked completely different; not as stark. I noticed as I waited at a stoplight that the public library was slightly less enthralling than normal, and across the street was The English Bookshop, which I’ve had recommended to me but completely forgot about.
This is when it hit me. I was noticing things again, the same way I had the first weekend of wandering around town. Though I make a point of looking up at the cathedral as I blast past it on my bike, I was forgetting to look at everything else. All it took was the sunlight to remind me, luckily, and now I can try to remember to see what’s in front of me again.
3) Partying
This weekend I was invited out to a little get together with several of the students from my class, just to hang out and drink German wine and vodka. One of the Germans in particular was enthusiastic for me to hang out with them because I’ve been rather quiet and studious in class. I thought it was a lot of fun; it was three Germans, three Swedes, a Canadian, and me. I spent most of my time listening to everyone’s stories; the Swedes and the Canadian were in a dissection-based lab last semester and were well down memory lane on that topic when I arrived. Later the conversation ranged from questions like “Is South Park a real place?” to “Why are Americans so friendly to people they’ve just met?” (This is rather uncommon in Germany and Europe, and our Canadian friend was undecided. Usually Germans and Swedes are rather formal with the people they’ve just met.) We hung around until about midnight before we parted ways, most of us to get ourselves home and go to bed.
It wasn’t until the next morning I found the text the German student had sent me just after everyone had left: “I really have some trouble to cope with you. Normally one gets drunk and then it is a lot easier but it’s hard for me to interact with you now.” I was a little frustrated with this. I had been rather proud of myself for doing something social (and even trying the vodka) and yet I was still apparently the oddball out because I didn’t drink enough.
Now, don’t expect my next post to be about the raging party I went to; I don’t plan on changing myself and my comfort levels that drastically. But it does leave me wondering about alcohol, college students, and social activity. Is it really that similar the world over?
Now, that is quite enough of me blabbing. Picture time!
The following pictures are taken of the cathedral in the middle of town at 7:45 in the morning (about forty minutes before the sun came up). As I mentioned before, the cathedral looks like a painting instead of a real building.
The sun today inspired me to think about doing a lot of things (none of them related to homework) so I'm planning on taking more pictures of the town and the places I'm loving more and more to show you. Maybe I'll even have them by the next post! Until then,
Hej då!
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